Author: iowajumpstart

Iowa Student Loan is offering two opportunities to help families pay for college this fall.

College Savings Plan Parent Giveaway: Now through Oct. 21, parents and guardians of students in grades 6-12 can register to win a $1,000 College Savings Iowa deposit. Fifty winner will be chosen.

Iowa Financial Know-How Challenge: Beginning Oct. 22, high school seniors can register online and complete the designated components of the Iowa Financial Know-How Challenge: Senior Scholarship for a chance to win one of 30 scholarships for $2,000. There are no GPA, merit or financial requirements.

The Get Smart About Credit program – sponsored by the American Bankers Association Engagement Foundation – is a national campaign of volunteer bankers who work with young people to raise awareness about the importance of using credit wisely. Hundreds of banks from across the country – and in Iowa – volunteer to teach the program in their local schools. To learn more about the program, and to find participating banks in your area, click here. And mark your calendar for Oct. 18, 2018, to celebrate Get Smart About Credit Day!

Are you passionate about building financial capability and find yourself constantly brainstorming and conjuring up ways to bring personal finance education to more students? If so, Next Gen Personal Finance has an amazing professional development opportunity for you!

Next Gen is awarding 20 scholarships for classroom teachers to attend the Jump$tart National Educator Conference in Cleveland, OH from November 3-5, 2018!

The National Consumers League hosts LifeSmarts, an online competition open to all students in grades 6–12. This September, LifeSmarts celebrates 25 years of empowering teens to become smart, savvy consumers. Each month, LifeSmarts focuses on a different category important to teen consumers: personal finance, health and safety, consumer rights, technology, and the environment. Students compete online and in-person throughout the year to win scholarships and prizes. Experts in LifeSmarts subject areas are also needed to serve as judges and officials at the state and national competitions. This year’s competition begins on September 10. Click here to learn more.

From now until September 27, 2018, Sallie Mae® is accepting nominations from counselors, mentors, and community members for the Bridging the Dream Scholarship. This year, Sallie Mae will be awarding a new group of inspiring high school students with $25,000 each.

Do you know a high school junior or senior

who works hard and inspires others;

has an interesting story to tell; and

is gifted or skilled in a way you think is outstanding?

Nominate them today for this scholarship opportunity! Your nominee could be a student that you’ve helped guide along the way, someone who has inspired you, or a student you worry may come up financially short of fulfilling their dreams. Also, share this message with your colleagues and other student-focused community organizations to ensure more students from your area are nominated.

Visit SallieMae.com/BridgingTheDream to learn more about previous winners, how these scholarships have impacted their lives, and to nominate a student today.

You can also help even more students find scholarships by telling them to check out Sallie Mae’s free Scholarship Search tool. It matches students with scholarship opportunities based on their unique skills, activities, and interests.

Looking for more financial education news, topics and tips — and can’t wait until the next quarterly Iowa Jump$tart newsletter? Sign up for National Jump$tart’s Financial Fridays e-newsletters — and get new tips every Friday! Click here to subscribe.

The National Jump$tart Coalition has announced a new program, called Groundswell, to help parents, grandparents and guardians advocate for financial education in their schools. The goal of the program is to help increase the number of K-12 students who receive financial education in the classroom by 25 percent by 2025. “Parents, grandparents and guardians are the most vocal advocates for their own kids’ education,” said Laura Levine, president and CEO of the Jump$tart Coalition. Jump$tart is planning to develop a virtual toolkit for those interested in taking part in the effort. Click here to learn more.

1. Know what you spend. Carry a small spiral notebook for a month and write down everything you buy with cash or debit cards. Other spending will show up in your checkbook register or credit card statement. 2. Spend less than you make. If you find that you spend more than you make, you will need to either make more or spend less. The option of using credit […]

Some people who have fluctuating monthly incomes find it difficult to know how to set up a monthly budget. Let me give you some advice on how that is done. It may be a bit more difficult to figure it out, but with a little planning and forethought it is certainly within your reach to do. Let’s break it down into three steps: Step 1. Determine how much money […]